Sandro Contenta

Sandro Contenta writes a weekly column on Canada for GlobalPost. Contenta has been a staff reporter with the Toronto Star, Canada’s biggest circulation daily since 1981. In 1998, he was...

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Sandro Contenta's Notebook:

March 18, 2009 21:38 ET

Battle for the Arctic

I recently wrote about countries scrambling for control of the Arctic. Here's the beginning of my column:

TORONTO — For Canadians, the Arctic has long been a place of imagination. It’s where Inuit shamans fly and explorers disappear without a trace. Vast and forbidding, it has helped imprint in the national psyche an almost debilitating sense of isolation.

Canada’s sovereignty over its portion of this mythical place is now being challenged, most notably by the United States and Russia. It’s part of a bigger rush for the Arctic, the setting for what the conservative Heritage Foundation recently predicted will be a new Cold War.

In short, the scramble for diminishing energy resources has reached one of the most sensitive ecosystems on Earth.

The most dramatic example occurred Feb. 18, the day before U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Canada, when two Russia bomber planes provocatively flew to the edge of Canada’s northern airspace. F-18 fighter planes were scrambled to intercept them. Canadian pilots sent the Russians “a strong signal that they should back off,” according to Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay. 

Click here to read the rest. 

March 13, 2009 11:08 ET

Canada's war dead

I recently wrote about the debate in Canada over the country's commitment to the conflict in Afghanistan. Here's the beginning of my column:

TORONTO — Canada does not try to hide its war dead. They’re honored in a now too familiar ritual, from the “ramp” ceremony with flag-draped coffins at Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan to a solemn procession along a stretch of road near Toronto renamed the Highway of Heroes.

Yet Canada has no collective concept of heroes outside the hockey rink. They don’t populate our history books. In war, the national image is not of the immense sacrifice of Canadian soldiers in World War II and Korea, but of blue-helmeted peacekeepers. The ritual for those Canadians who have died in Afghanistan, in other words, stirs far more grief and concern than patriotism.

Three more Canadian soldiers — victims of a roadside bomb in what had been a more peaceful part of Kandahar province — were given such honors last week. A fourth received them on March 9th. This brings the number of Canadian soldiers killed in the conflict to 112.

The ritual became all the more poignant when the wife of one of the dead mustered the strength to face reporters and urge the government to press ahead with the Afghan mission. 

To read the rest, click here. 

February 17, 2009 22:43 ET | Updated: February 17, 2009 22:53 ET

In advance of visit to Canada, Obama heaps praise on northern neighbor

TORONTO — On the eve of his trip to Canada, President Barack Obama has turned on the charm.

He heaped praise on Canada during a 10-minute interview Tuesday night with the CBC network, lauding America’s northern neighbor for its natural beauty, its handling of the economy and its multiculturalism.

He stressed that the United States should look to Canada for examples of how to run a healthy financial sector.

“One of the things that I think has been striking about Canada is that in the midst of this enormous economic crisis, I think Canada has shown itself to be a pretty good manager of the financial system and the economy in ways that we haven’t always been here in the United States,” Obama told Peter Mansbridge, the state-owned network’s anchor.

“And I think that’s important for us to take note of; that it’s possible for us to have a vibrant banking sector, for example, without taking some of the wild risks that have resulted in so much trouble on Wall Street,” he added.

Obama made the comments just before his visit to Canada Thursday, his first foreign trip since becoming president.

Obama said he had visited Canada a couple of times, most recently to see his brother-in-law’s family in Burlington, a town near Toronto.

“I think that Canada is one of the most impressive countries in the world: The way it has managed a diverse population (and) a vibrant economy; the natural beauty of Canada is extraordinary,” Obama said.

“Obviously, there’s an enormous kinship between the United States and Canada. And the ties that bind our two countries together are things that are very important to us,” he added.

Mansbridge reminded Obama that “you carry Canada on your belt; that Blackberry is a Canadian invention.”

“Absolutely,” Obama replied, chuckling.

Obama also commented on some of the issues he’ll likely discuss with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He tried to reassure Canada that “Buy American” provisions in his nearly $800 billion stimulus package were not the start of protectionism south of the border.

He dodged the question when asked if he considers oil from the Alberta oil sands — which the U.S. imports — “dirty oil.” But he expressed concern about the “big carbon footprint” produced to extract oil from the sands and called on countries to work together to reduce greenhouse gases.

On Afghanistan, Obama wouldn’t say if he would ask Canada to keep its troops there until after 2011, the date the Canadian government has set for their withdrawal.

But the interview ended on a light note.

“You still haven’t seen your first hockey game,” Mansbridge said.

“I’m looking forward to making it happen at some point,” he said, chuckling.

February 17, 2009 21:19 ET

For Obama: Tips on visiting Canada

I recently wrote about Obama's upcoming visit to Canada: 

TORONTO – Sometimes, the depth of a friendship can be gauged with a silly question.

The Canadian polling firm Angus Reid tried to do exactly that with recent surveys on both sides of the 49th parallel. It asked Canadians and Americans which citizens in the world would be most willing to rescue them from a deserted island. Canadians picked Americans as their number one choice. Americans chose Canadians.

Despite a long history of policy differences and trade disputes, it seems Americans and Canadians trust no one more than each other. When all is said and done, it’s perhaps this underlying trust that above all has U.S. President Barack Obama landing in Ottawa Feb. 19 for his first foreign trip. 

Read the rest of my dispatch, including pointers for Obama, here. 

February 8, 2009 18:06 ET | Updated: February 9, 2009 07:35 ET

Some Canadians are feeling snubbed as news of Obama's visit emerges

TORONTO – When President Barack Obama decided that Canada would be the site of his first foreign visit, there was great joy in this cold land.

With our economy and politics a mess, and winter winds slashing about like razor blades, Canadians greeted the news of the Feb. 19 visit with glowing hearts, to borrow a image from our national anthem.

Some immediately began preparations to travel from far and wide to descend on Ottawa for a glimpse of the embodiment of hope, history and celebrity.

“This was like a multiplier of a Papal visit, the Rolling Stones in their prime and Nelson Mandela all wrapped up in one,” said high-profile commentator Rex Murphy.

But late last week the first details of the visit trickled out, leaving some feeling snubbed.

Obama will spend barely six hours in Canada, arriving at 10 a.m. and leaving at 4 p.m., according to sources quoted by the Canadian Press news agency. Defying expectations, he won’t be making a speech, not even to the House of Commons, the elected branch of Canada’s Parliament. He won’t go to visit the acting head of state, Michaelle Jean, the country’s first black governor general. She’ll instead welcome him at the airport. And he won’t be making a public appearance, at least nothing that would give Canadians a chance to glimpse the man they so much want to see.

Obama’s officials have apparently insisted on a working visit focused solely on the economy. And so, the president will meet Prime Minister Stephen Harper, opposition leader Michael Ignatieff, staff from the U.S. embassy, hold a joint press conference with the prime minister, and then head back south.

Most commentators thought this was all well and good: Obama, after all, has his hands full trying to avoid a depression back home, and Canada’s not much of a priority. We should be grateful he’s coming at all, they said.

But Murphy undoubtedly captured the disappointment of many Canadians who expected something more.

“What’s the point of his visit if he’s hidden most of the time?” Murphy said during his weekly commentary on the state-owned CBC’s nightly news. “You may very well ask, in these conditions, why is he coming at all?”

“Is this a pass it off visit?” Murphy wondered. “He knows he’s got to come here sometime so he’s going through the motions, getting it over with. Looks to me like Air Force One is being called out to execute a tiny bit of business that could almost be handled on a cell phone. My guess is some people have somewhere already badly mismanaged the Obama visit.”

Murphy insisted that at the very least Obama should make a televised speech to elected members of the House of Commons.

“If what we hear is true, the first visit of Barack Obama as president outside the USA is shaping up to be flat, bottled up, nearly invisible and completely cut off from the real objects of any real visit — the people of Canada. As we hear it’s organized now, I’d say it’s little short of a brush off disguised as a visit. It isn’t too late to fix this and fixed it should be. As it stands a lot of people are going to be disappointed.”